Leni Sinclair Prince 1980 Detroit Print

Legendary photographer and activist Leni Sinclair amassed a remarkable archive of roughly 100,000 photographs that reads as an indispensable history of the often-turbulent times in which she has lived. She is most widely known as a chronicler of the 1960s and '70s counterculture, capturing the combustible, yet poetic chaos at the intersection of music, politics, race and youth that defined the era. For her debut 1xRUN Leni Sinclair has dug into her expansive archives for this iconic photo of none other than Prince, captured at Detroit's Cobo Hall in 1980.

"It was actually a bit of coincidence that I saw Prince at his first concert in Detroit. My daughter was 12 years old and she was a big big Prince fan. So I agreed to take her to the concert and buy the tickets and be the chaperone. It was a magnificent concert. I wasn’t that deep into Prince like my daughter was, but that concert was incredible. I was just fortunate that I had my camera and we must have had some good seats, or maybe I brought my telephoto lens, but either way I got some beautiful pictures.

What impressed me about the band was the guitar playing. Prince was playing with The Revolution, and Dez Dickerson and Prince were playing off each other. They were churning out some guitar duos like I would remember from the MC5’s Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith would get into these dueling solos on the guitar. It was just mind-blowing, it would just take your breath away. That was phenomenal to me. He was a rock musician right from the start. What is unique about this photo was that they had these smoke machines. That gave it such a halo around him. That was pretty unusual, but that made for such a nice composition. That’s just Prince. The naked truth. He was one hell of a musician, and I loved his guitar playing. I think I saw Prince once or twice after that. We went to every concert that Prince played in Detroit. May he rest in piece. Prince of peace." - Leni Sinclair

The print comes in two editions paper 20 x 14 Inches Archival Pigment Print on 310gsm Fine Art Paper with an edition of 100. Then there is the Purple Rain edition that is Archival Pigment Print on Brushed Aluminum measuring 16 x 12 inches.

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